John Jumper, who led the development of AlphaFold and shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, announced on June 19, 2026 that he is leaving Google DeepMind after nearly nine years to join Anthropic.
June 19, 2026 · AI Research Talent
AlphaFold's Nobel Co-Creator Leaves DeepMind for Anthropic
John Jumper — 2024 Nobel laureate in chemistry and leader of the team that largely solved the protein-folding problem — is departing Google DeepMind after nearly nine years to join Claude-maker Anthropic.
~9 yrs
At DeepMind, joined late 2017
2024
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Hassabis & Baker
CASP14
2020 breakthrough that cracked protein-structure prediction
The AlphaFold Journey
AlphaFold2 · 2020
Dramatically improved accuracy at CASP14 — credited with largely solving the protein-folding problem.
→
AlphaFold3 · 2024
Extended predictions to molecular interactions with DNA, RNA, and ligands.
A Wider Pattern
An outflow of talent from Google AI
John Jumper
AlphaFold leader, Nobel laureateDeepMind → Anthropic
Noam Shazeer
Co-inventor of the TransformerGoogle → OpenAI
A gain for Anthropic
AlphaFold is seen as a rare AI that drove real scientific progress — not a chatbot demo. Its leader joins a safety-focused lab whose research direction shares his values.
A question for DeepMind
A major loss as observers ask whether Gemini still signals the next leap. Role, pay, and start date at Anthropic remain undisclosed.
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